Newly launched restaurant Mondo Malta has welcomed the introduction of robot waiters, which aim to offer clients a “unique experience” amid scarce human resources within the catering industry.

Mondo is a new restaurant concept at The Quad Central, a recently opened business centre that will be home to a number of catering establishments, a supermarket, a gym, as well as other amenities. The restaurant is one of a range of firms that have opted to introduce robot waiters and other forms of automation to their business operations.

The move complies with Mondo’s focus of trying to be as "innovative as much as possible", in order to "give clients a unique experience". Another pull factor was widespread staff shortages in the catering industry, a persistent and widespread critical issue for several restaurants since last year.

“The robots can serve clients their food and beverages at their respective tables. They are also able to congratulate clients, such as saying happy birthday and more,” Mondo’s management said.

Additionally, the restaurant has worked with the robots both during low turnover periods, as well as busy ones. In the latter’s case, the staff is instead used “to upsell products and have better quality time with the end consumer”. While a significant amount of pressure has been eased off the staff, the restaurant pointed out that it has not reduced its workforce but is instead innovating “to find solutions to issues that the industry is facing due to long hours, weekends, and more”.

Clients have welcomed this new form of service as they get accustomed to this “new experience”.

“Customers are satisfied because they are being served quicker during certain days when we might be with less staff due to slow operations, and in peak times they are still able to enjoy the restaurant and experience to the full because the waiters have more time to interact with the clients rather than actually serving,” the restaurant's management explained.

The robots are relatively “easy to use”, hence prior staff training is “barely needed”, a spokesperson concluded.